Poultry News

Antibiotic Resistance – a Growing Threat to the Poultry Industry?

10 June 2015

US - With international regulators continuously introducing new standards in order to protect consumer health, one of the biggest areas of concern in poultry production is the presence of drug residues in tissue.

The use of antibiotics is common place in the poultry and livestock industry for the prevention of disease and increasing meat quality, with a lower percentage of fat and higher protein content in the meat.

Other benefits of using antibiotic growth promoters include control of pathogens such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli and enterococci.

An estimated 70 per cent of antibiotics produced in the USA are used in animal agriculture to accelerate animal growth and prevent diseases common in poultry and livestock production.

Despite the benefits, there are concerns within industry and the consumer market of the effects on antibiotic resistance.

One only has to consider the impact on the poultry market, when food scares emerge, to demonstrate the importance of meat safety.

In 2003, avian influenza became a pandemic, spanning from Asia to Europe and Africa.

This resulted in widespread slaughter of poultry, wild and domestic, millions of cases of contamination in poultry along with human infection and occurrences of human fatalities. It resulted in the reduction of poultry consumption by 29 per cent in 2004.

Alarmingly, there have been recent reports of avian influenza in the USA, during May 2015 the AI virus is said to have struck a turkey farm that kept 42,000 birds. Given upcoming seasonal preparation of turkey products, this fresh scare will concern industry and consumer alike.

With this in mind, industry is compelled to consider factors in the meat production process.

Increasing food safety regulations, consumer opinion, retailer pressure and fresh food scares have led to a necessity for food industries to implement greater testing measures which ensure that food products are suitable for human consumption.

The EU directive 96/23/EC dictates that member states should test various food matrices including meat, fish, eggs, honey and milk for drug residues.

Randox Food Diagnostics is a market-leader in tissue screening for the presence of antibiotics & drug residues.

It detects up to 22 analytes from a single sample in less than three hours and with less than five per cent false positives and no false negatives.

Combined with a global customer base including leading reference sites USDA and SQTS, food producers can have confidence in Randox Food Diagnostics Biochip Array Technology. It offers an extensive test menu validated for tissue with a specific Coccidiostats Array targeted at common veterinary drugs used in poultry tissue.

In an increasingly safety-conscious market such as the food market, the stakes are high. Restoring consumer confidence, if damaged, can be a much longer term issue.

Randox Food continuously strives to increase consumer confidence by improving food safety worldwide through the use of revolutionary BAT technology that producers and consumers can trust.